Boom or Bust – Wanaka Half 2012

My race strategy can be a bit risky, but until its always come off. But this time it didn’t work, I haven’t quite worked out why… Not fit enough?? Don’t think so…. Nutrition screwed up?? Don’t think so… Just not my day?? Probably.

So the strategy is really quite simple, go hard on the bike. Risky, because I could go too hard and blow the run… Which is what happened. The last hill before the airport, just after 70K…. I hit the hill and hit the wall. My legs just said WTF and seemed to stop working. I crawled up the hill and then tried to recover as well as I could for the last 20. Unfortunately, that included 10K of head wind. So by the run I wasn’t right, I tried to get the legs working but they wouldn’t go, it was a shuffle. Felt like it was 2 years before and I was doing the 2nd lap of the run. At the first aid station, I slowed to grab a coke and kinda of stumbled, I was all over the place. 

So grabbed another coke and walked it out for a bit, and then a bit more.. got to the next aid station and downed some more coke and finally started to feel better and jogged through the outlet track, but I had given up on a good time, as soon as I stumbled to a walk, so I decided to just enjoy the lap. And debated if I could be slow enough for the Full pro’s to pass me.. I was! 

I didn’t have a clue who it was though when the lead male passed me, saw the bike and saw the guy and thought who the f is that…. then as I was in the last K Jamie Whyte came passed  ( I was just behind where they crossed and 1st place(Aaron Farlow) was coming back, could see the look in their eyes). So that was the most interesting part of the day.

Not great overall day, but think I can be happy with the swim and bike(even with the final 20K crawl). Plus at least I finished, that was quite frankly the most important part of the day for me mentally, other wise I would have crawled under a rock and stayed there for several weeks

Sometimes it just comes into focus

Gosh a couple of days ago I was moaning lost little soul. But within the last day things have just refocused themselves. Sometimes it just does that
I did need a break this summer, but half ironman’s and the not happening kinda threw my focus. But now I am looking past them to 6 months down the track. The flab i have put on needs to come of and the desire to train comes back into focus.

Sure, hopefully I do ok in wanaka, and I am thinking of doing a long tri down there at end of Feb for the Summer send off, but what worries me the most at the moment, is how I am going to handle the long bike sessions in May, and especially June… Behold the wonders of a new year and a goal within reach and striking distance

2011 – Shit happens

I can’t think of a better description for a year. 2011 will never be forgotten, it will stay as legend in New Zealand. For me, in some ways a most exciting, interesting, devastating and frustrating  year. On a personal level it has finished almost as bad as it has started.

I haven’t added a post for a while. The reasons, mainly because didn’t seem to have anything to write about…. I had a mechanical (that’s a bit of excuse really.. more of a brain meltdown that couldn’t overcome a slight issue) at Ashburton half so pulled out on the bike. Then, after getting really excited for 2 weeks before Rotorua, I get sick the day before the race. How unlucky is that? It just wasn’t worth racing, so I got to watch instead. Which is an interesting experience… watching the girls get out.. “I would have been out about now… 3rd out of the swim”… I should have been off the bike by now… top 2… the run would have taken me an age. I did a loop of the lake the next day, it wasn’t a track best suited to me (not sure if there is a track best suited to me… but you know what I mean).

Anyway in the last 2 weeks the training wheels have fallen off and I haven’t been able to train very much… a few easy swims or bikes in the last few days…  maybe tomorrow… but I seem to have been saying tomorrow I will be back to normal for the last week. So my summer of Half Ironmans has not been very succesful to date, and I doubt I will be at 100% for Wanaka… just have fun might be the aim of the day.

Ok.. being sick for 2 weeks at the end of the year compares nothing to what happened at the start… I am just feeling sorry for myself.

On an interesting note, The Press this morning has Andrea Hewitt on the front of it (over the All Blacks) showing the positives of 2011. I wonder if the editor is a triathlon fan…

Should I care more when I miss sessions?

This week,I have had a cold. Which meant I missed 5 days of training. I tried a run on Thursday, but it didn’t feel good, so I bailed. A year or so ago i would have been stressed by all the missed sessions and pushed through it further. But now i just don’t care, maybe it lazy or maybe I just want to be 100% before forcing the body to train again. I think I have grown up, but then I don’t want to go too far the other way

I had been awesome

But then a quake happened, this wasn’t just a minor emotional upset, where one has to control your desire for food, no this was much larger. You went from: I don’t actually give a F*@k, to: why the heck not. Your will power dribbled into powder and excess seemed almost to be the key.
There are other postives, possessions and material things just don’t seem as important anymore. But getting a handle on my obsessions was hard. A month or so a go I quite the V. I had sky rocketed out of control, after the quake I had started back on the habit to 1 a morning, then it became 2 or 3 a day. Way out of control, but it didn’t help my food obession.
Then last weekend, I had to admit defeat, my once loose size 10 jeans no longer fitted. I had to move into the “fat” jeans. I want to go faster this year at SI Half Ironaman, but how am I going to do that 5KG heavier? It was the point that my brain needed to just say no, so suddenly the old rythmn or food and faint hunger are back.
I am really concerned that I can’t loose 5Kg in 6 weeks, actually I know I can’t, so I might have to reaccess the goals. But all I can do is try and hope this determination holds

The warmer weather arrives, and the tri season is getting close

I decided to do half iromans this summer, so I wouldn’t have to do the big K’s over summer, but I am actually missing them and looking forward to some big training days, is some nice warm weather. I sure that to many spending 8 hours training during your weekend is nutty, but I’m looking forward to it.

Paul’s given me the next 4 weeks of program, and its looking awesome. I can feel the tiredness and the miles in my legs already, and can’t wait to get on with it (God, I’m sure “normal” people will be looking for the nutty switch about now). Plus in 2 weeks its a girly training camp to Wanaka, and looking forward to it heaps. A holiday away to one of my favourite places and some days to just train. Hopefully, the weather behaves itself, crown range is on the plans and I don’t want it snowing on me, nor’ do I want the wind blowing me sideways.

Though I hate daylight savings this early (yeh I’m prob the only one), but means that the longer bike rides during the week will have to be moved to after work, rather than the 6am start I have been doing the last few weeks. I suppose, I’ll adapt, for a few weeks at least.

 

 

To Win – Here is the 3 year 4 part plan

Last November I learnt something, I could win. Up to that point, I was just out there doing my thing to just achieve it. I never ever believed that I was good enough to win anything.

But after my first half ironman of the season I looked at the provisional results and saw me at the top of my age group. I didn’t believe it, I actually truly believed that something had gone wrong, they’d fix it and I’ll be near the middle. But that didn’t happen, I was still first. It wasn’t exactly a big age group, so arguably not that hard to win, but I still beat all the rest… but more importantly from that point on, my view point and goals have slowly changed. I no longer think I would not be able to win, I believe I can! It’s just a case of getting all the parts together correctly and I will be able to get there.

This is a scary thing to announce, because I could quite easily fall flat on my face and not get there. But I truly believe in aiming high, higher than you can ever imagine and then you will find a way to get there. I have done that all the way through my journeys the last few years. But for most of them, they were more about surviving,  Taupo was my first attempt to not just complete but to go that little extra further. I got half way there, but it gave me something else, the confidence to know I can go even further.

The other thing I believe is telling the world so that I am honest with myself. I have been quite on the plan, I might have hinted at it occasionally, but I have been a little to scared to tell the world. They might just roll their eyes at me and say I told you so. So I am going to tell you world, my goal is 10hr 30min .

OK, I am going to put it in a bit more context, after all, weather, course and circumstances all will affect the time, lets just say it’s a base goal, and yes it 90min faster than what I did at Taupo.

But I’ll take you through the 3year plan (well 2 year now, but might be extended to 3).

Part 1: Summer 11/12 – Half Ironmans. I wanted a break from the big rides and get a little bit of speed in the legs when running

Part 2 : Winter 12. Iron Distance. Wanted to do an overseas ironman to add into the mix, see the world. So entered Roth, its a fast course, so good to test out legs on a fast course, but being in the middle of a NZ winter, I know I will struggle to be at peak fitness

Part 3: Summer 13. Ironman. It was going to be Taupo, but I might make it Melbourne. But here’s the kicker, qualify for Kona!… so which ever one will give me the best chance to qualify. Gulp, I said it, that’s where the 10:30 comes in, I should qualify on that time. But I might not, it all depends on slots and who else is in the age group, but I will try my dambdest to get there. If I don’t, I might go for the next year, but maybe  I’ll just slink off in a different direction and give it up.

Part 4: October 13. Kona. Yip getting there is the goal.

I believe  my swim and cycle are good enough to compete against anyone in my age group, I don’t believe my run is. Thats my Achilles heal and always will be, can I improve the others good enough to compensate? The other Achilles is weight, and this winter my weight has gone the opposite to where I want it to be going, but hopefully I can over come.

 

 

Crappy Winter

oh I don’t mean weather wise, just mentally I am having one crap arse winter. I can’t stop eating, and weight is piling on. My knee means I can’t run and now I have got my 3rd cold in as many months. And quite frankly I am as motivated as a Jack hammer (assuming jack hammers have no motivation) What the F@#K is happening!

Thank god the end is in sight, August tomorrow, daylight is getting longer. The knee is getting better, and the cold isn’t that bad, minor in comparison to what is could be. I am most concerned about the weight issue, I have decided I just need to find the will power and go hungry (well what my stomach thinks is hungry but really its getting plenty of enough) for a few weeks, once I get back into a good nutrition rhythm it will come right, but finding that rhythm right now is just not happening.

But all I can wish for is the end of this damn winter…

OMG! Challenge Roth

There comes a point where you just say, “What the heck, life is lived once, just do it”. But goddam it can be hard to say it. The Challenge Roth entries opened on Monday Evening, and it is not a race that stays open for long. So it was enter Monday evening or don’t enter at all.

It was a race, I had kind of highlighted as a possible race to do next winter, it is certainly on the list of things to do before you die. But I hadn’t really gone much further in my thinking processes than that. So the entry date kinda of snuck up on me and I had to make a decision.

There was a few things against the race, the number of athletes, the size of the crowd and most of them would not be speaking English at me. I just don’t think my 4th form German would help me much.

Plus there is the cost, the entry is not going to be the expensive part.

But on the plus side, a holiday in Europe, somewhere I have never been. To say you have done the legendary race. To be away from a Christchurch winter. Maybe the chance to catch some of Le tour afterwards. Though Eamon probably will not be able to get holidays, the disadvantage of working for a school, so I’ll be going alone… (German holiday anyone?)

So it came down to what I would be thinking in 6 months if I didn’t enter, would I be kicking myself. By entering now, I haven’t reduced my opportunity and I have to April to change my mind and only loose about $100. But I have this thing about entering, once entered pulling out is almost not a possibility.

So Part 2 of the 4 part 3 year plan has begun.

Injury Strikes

Ahhh its nothing serious, but it is enough to be annoying. I got a niggle in the back of my knee during training camp, not enough to concern me. It seems to worry me more when not training, going for a walk after sitting on my foot at my desk for a few hours, I am a bit of a hop a long.

But this morning I started for a run, and it just didn’t feel right. I pulled the plug after a few minutes and decided it was time to see the physio. So off to see Bridgit (at sports Med now, injury solutions is gone) I went. Apparently, I have strained the hamstring right where it joins to the lower leg.

I’m good to go, as long as it doesn’t hurt… ahh at least its winter.